Introduction to SketchUp

This guide is handy to read if you need some basic knowledge to get started using SketchUp. You will see how to
download and install Sketchup, and learn how to use your mouse (and what kind of mouse you need). You will
also get a basic overview of the user interface, and learn how to use many of the basic SketchUp tools.

Downloading and Installing Google SketchUp

1.

If you dont have SketchUp, go to www.sketchup.com and click the Download SketchUp button.

2.

SketchUp Make is the free version, which is all you need for personal or educational use. Once you enter
your email address and agree to the terms, click the Download SketchUp Make button.

3.

Follow the installation instructions, and once finished, youll see the SketchUp icon on your desktop.
Double-click this icon to open SketchUp.

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4.

In the Welcome to SketchUp window, click Choose Template, and choose one of the templates from the list.
Then click Start Using SketchUp.

The Mouse
You might already have a perfect mouse, but if not, you should get one! What you should have is a three-button,
scroll wheel mouse. Here are some examples:

If you are using SketchUp on a laptop or notebook computer, you might not have a separate mouse. Instead, you
may have a track pad with two mouse buttons, like these examples:

It is quite difficult to use SketchUp properly on a laptop, with buttons and pads like these. So you really should
attach a real mouse to the laptop.

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Using a three-button wheel mouse has two huge advantages:

1.

The scroll wheel can be used to zoom in and out (making the objects appear larger or smaller).

2.

The middle mouse button can be used for orbiting (spinning the model around). If you have a scroll-wheel in
the middle, the scroll wheel IS the middle mouse button - you can both scroll it and click it.

The right mouse makes it easy to move around in your model - its a good deal harder to maneuver around with a
lesser mouse!
If you install a new mouse, it comes with setup software, which you can use to set what each mouse button does.
If you already have a mouse, and the buttons arent doing what you expect them to, open your computers mouse
settings. Most mouse drivers have options to set what each mouse button does. Make sure you set:
Left button = click
Right button = Right-click
Wheel button = Scroll (yours might say AutoScroll)
If theres a separate option for Middle Button, set it to Middle-click.
Some mice have extra buttons, such as small ones on either side. You can set one of these to double-click, which
will save your clicking finger from some extra work! (SketchUp uses a lot of double-clicking.)

Toolbars, Menus, Icons

This is the menu and the main toolbar youll see when first opening SketchUp. Here you can access most, if not
all, the drawing and editing tools youll be using.

There are many more toolbars available, which you can find by choosing View / Toolbars (Mac: View / Customize
Toolbars). From the menu that appears, click any toolbars you want to see. (What you see on your list may look
different; installing plugins adds more toolbars to the list.) Once displayed, you can move toolbars to different
locations, by clicking and dragging their title bars around the screen.

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Mac users: drag the toolbar you want to see onto the main toolbar.
If you dont feel like clicking icons or going the main menu each time you want to use a tool, you should get to
know the keyboard shortcuts. If you look at the menus, you can see the shortcuts listed next to each tool (for
example, L for Line, M for Move, or E for Eraser).

To use a shortcut, just press the letter or key on the keyboard. So if you want to use Move, just press the M key.
This is very useful for tools you use very often, such as Select (whose shortcut key is the Spacebar).
If you want to change a shortcut to a different key, or set a shortcut for a tool that doesnt have a shortcut, choose
Window / Preferences (Mac: SketchUp / Preferences) and open the Shortcuts page.

Zooming, Panning, and Orbiting

Its crucial in SketchUp that you understand how to navigate and explore in your model. There are icons for
zooming, panning, and orbiting tools. But to make it very easy to move around, you really, really need a
three-button scroll wheel mouse. With the right mouse, you never have to click any of these tools - you just use
your mouse buttons and (sometimes) keys on your keyboard.

Orbit

Orbiting is like holding an object and turning it around. When you use this tool, click and hold the mouse button
and move the mouse around. Where your cursor is on the screen will be the center of rotation. It takes some getting
used to, so try using Orbit with your cursor in different places.
Heres a much easier way to orbit: If you have a three-button mouse, just press and hold the middle mouse button
while moving the mouse. If your middle mouse button is a scroll wheel, just click the wheel and hold it down.
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You can mouse-orbit even if youre in the middle of using another tool - when you release the middle mouse
button, youre back in the tool you were already using.

Pan

Panning means sliding your view up or down, left or right. Its similar to moving a piece of paper across a desk.
To pan the view, activate Pan and hold and drag the mouse.
If you have a three-button mouse, you can pan by pressing Shift while orbiting. This means holding the middle
mouse button, pressing Shift, and dragging the mouse around.

Zoom

Click and drag the mouse up to zoom in, down to zoom out. With a wheel mouse, you can scroll the mouse wheel
up or down to zoom. If you are using your scroll wheel, place your mouse where you want the zoom to be centered.
It sounds confusing, but try zooming with your cursor in different places, to see what this means.
If you zoom so far in or out that you cant see your model anymore, click Zoom Extents. That will fit everything
back on your screen.

Overview of SketchUps Basic Tools

All of SketchUps drawing and editing tools are available from the main menu, and on the main toolbar across the
top of the screen. Most of these can be activated by a shortcut key, too.

Select
Menu: Tools / Select, shortcut: Spacebar

You need to select objects (edges and/or faces) before the objects can be moved, copied, scaled, etc. You can also
use Select to erase objects: Select them, then press the Delete key.

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When you activate Select and click on an object, it will be highlighted. You can select more than one object by
pressing Shift or Ctrl (Mac: Option) while clicking. (Shift toggles whats selected - if something is already
selected, Shift and Select will unselect it. Ctrl / Option will only add to whats selected.)
When you want to select multiple objects, its often easiest to use a selection window. This means holding the
mouse and dragging a rectangle around what you want to select. The way you drag the window makes a difference:
if the window goes from left to right, youll select only whats completely inside. If the window goes from right
to left, youll select everything completely inside AND everything that touches the window.
If you double-click on a face, youll select both the face and its edges. This comes in handy! And triple-clicking
means everything connected to the selected object will also be selected.

Line
Menu: Draw / Lines / Line, shortcut: L

This tool draws (surprise!) lines, also known in SketchUp as edges. Click the first endpoint, then click the second
endpoint. If youre finished making lines but the tool has started a new line, press the Esc (Escape) key. (You can
also activate a new tool if you ever want to cancel the current tool.) If you draw lines that form a closed shape,
like a triangle or rectangle, SketchUp will automatically create a face inside the lines.

Rectangle
Menu: Draw / Shapes / Rectangle, shortcut: R

To draw a rectangle, click one corner, and then click the opposite corner. If you want to draw a square, wait to see
the Square popup before clicking that second corner point.

Circle
Menu: Draw / Shapes / Circle, shortcut: C

To draw a circle, first click the center point, then click an outside point.
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A circle is actually a set of short line segments; the default number of sides is 24 which is fine for almost all
models. If you need a more realistic circle, you can use a higher number of sides. To set the number of sides,
activate Circle and then immediately type the number of sides you want, and press Enter. To change the number
of sides of a circle you just made, type 100s to change the number to 100 sides (for example). Warning: a high
number of sides can slow down your model!

Arc Tools
Menu: Draw / Arcs

There are three ways to draw an arc. The simplest is 2 Point Arc (shortcut: A), which creates in arc in three clicks.
The first click sets the start point, then the end point, then a point in the middle (the bulge point). Like with
circles, an arc is actually made of short line segments, and you can change the number of sides like you would for
a circle.
The second arc tool (Arc) first sets the center point, then the two points at either end. Pie is similar, but fills in a
pie-shaped face.

Polygon
Menu: Draw / Shapes Polygon

When you first activate Polygon, before clicking any points, youll see the number of sides listed in the Sides box,
located by default below the SketchUp window. If you want a different number of sides, type the number and press
Enter. (For example, if you enter 3, youll create a triangle, if you enter 6, youll create a hexagon.)
Then create the polygon like a circle - first the center point, then an outside point. After a polygon is created, you
can still change its number of sides. Enter 8s to change the polygon to an octagon, for example.

Eraser
Menu: Tools / Eraser, shortcut: E

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This tool erases edges (lines). If you erase an edge of a face, the face will also disappear. (Re-drawing that line
will replace the face.) To erase more than one edge, you can click on each edge separately, or you can keep the
left mouse button pressed while you drag the mouse over the edges you want to erase.
This tool doesnt work on faces! To erase a face, you can right-click on it (click the face using your right mouse
button) and choose Erase. Or you can Select a face and press the Delete key.

Move
Menu: Tools / Move, shortcut: M

This tool is used for both moving and copying. First, Select what you want to move. Then click a start point and
end point for the move. The Length box below the SketchUp window will show you the move distance - you can
change this by entering a new number.
If you want to make a copy, press the Ctrl (Mac: Option) key while moving. (Just press Ctrl / Option once, you
dont have to hold it down.) After the copy is created, you can enter 2x to make two 2 copies, 8x to make eight
copies, etc. You can also enter a distance from the first to last copy, like 120. If you want to create four copies
spaced evenly within this distance, enter 4/ (note the slash symbol).

Rotate
Menu: Tools / Rotate, shortcut: Q

This tool is used for both rotating and copying. First, Select what you want to rotate. Then the protractor appears
- place this at the center of rotation. Then click a start point and end point for the rotation. The angle is shown in
the Angle box below the SketchUp window; you can change this by entering a new number.
If you want to make a copy, press the Ctrl / Option key while rotating. After the copy is created, you can enter
2x to make two copies, etc. You can also enter an angle from the first to last copy, like 360. If you want to
create 12 copies spaced evenly within this distance, enter 12/ (again, note the slash symbol).

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Paint Bucket
Menu: Tools / Paint Bucket, shortcut: B

This is the tool you use to paint faces. When you click it, the Materials window opens (Mac: the Colors window
opens). There are several collections of solid colors and materials available.

To paint a face, click the color square you want to use, then click the face. If you want to paint more than one face
at once, first Select the faces you want to paint. Then click the color, and click any of the selected faces. They will
all be painted.
SketchUp has MANY more tools, but these are the basic ones youll use most often. You can always check
SketchUps online help (menu: Help / Knowledge Center) for a quick description of a tool or feature. And of
course, all of the advanced tools are described in the ModelMetricks and GeomeTricks books!

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